Support the Bipartisan Compromise Agreed to by Employers and Farmworkers

On April 26, 2013, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Goodlatte (R-Va.) filed the

“Agricultural

Guestworker Act,

”

H.R. 1773. The bill would create a new agriculturalguestworker program. Despite widespread recognition of the need for comprehensive reformlegislation to fix our broken immigration system, Rep. Goodlatte offers piecemeal legislation thatlacks broad support and will create even more unfairness and dysfunction in our immigrationsystem. The terms of the new agricultural guestworker program would deprive U.S. citizens and

allow exploitative conditions for hundreds of thousands of new guestworkers. Most importantly,the bill lacks an opportunity for the hundreds of thousands of current farmworkers who lack authorized immigration status to earn a green card or citizenship.This legislation stands in stark contrast to the comprehensive proposal for immigration reform by

the “Gang of Eight” Senators, which

includes a carefully-negotiated, balanced agreement

regarding agricultural workers. Rep. Goodlatte’s one

-sided bill takes some aspects of the Senatecompromise but the end result would be devastating to current and future farmworkers. Theagricultural provisions in the Senate bill, S.744, resulted from months of difficult negotiations between major agribusiness groups, the United Farm Workers, and a bipartisan group of veryengaged Senators. The compromise includes both an earned legalization program and road mapto citizenship for the current undocumented agricultural workforce and a new visa program toaddress future farm labor needs. It would be good for farmworkers, employers and the nationalinterest in a secure, safe food supply.Rep.

Goodlatte’s bill would

replace the H-2A agricultural guestworker program with a new H-2C program and

eliminate many long-standing worker protections.

His one-sided bill wouldallow exploitation of foreign citizens of poor countries and cause job loss and lower wages for U.S. farmworkers. It contravenes the recommendations for reform in the Farmworker Justice

report, “No Way to Treat a Guest: Why the H

-2A Agricultural Visa Program Fails U.S. and

Foreign Workers.”

Specifically, the bill would:



Deprive U.S. farmworkers of jobs by minimizing recruitment obligations.

The billwould eliminate the 50% percent rule, which requires employers to hire qualified U.S. workerswho apply for work during the first half of the season.



Slash wage rates and withhold 10

% of workers’ wages.

The H-2C program would requireonly that employers pay the higher of the prevailing wage or the federal or state minimumwage, but does not define prevailing wage. Currently, H-2A employers must pay the highest

of three wage rates: the state or federal minimum wage, the “Adverse Effect Wage Rate”

(AEWR), or the local prevailing wage. The AEWR is the regional average hourly wage ratefor field and livestock workers,

as measured by the Department of Agriculture’s annual Farm

Labor Survey of non-supervisory workers. The AEWR was created in response todepression in local prevailing wages under guestworker programs.

Goodlatte’s bill

would

also withhold 10

% of workers’

meager wages from their paychecks. To apply for the returnof their earnings, H-2C workers would be required to travel to a U.S. consulate in their homeland within 30 days of the expiration of their visa and demonstrate compliance with theterms of the H-2C program. Such workers will labor in fear of being fired and deemed out of compliance and therefore ineligible for return of their money, which will deter them fromchallenging unfair or illegal employer practices. Wage deduction abuses are still beinglitigated under the Bracero program, which ended in 1964.



Expand the program

’

s coverage

from temporary and seasonal agriculture to year-round, permanent jobs in industries such as dairy and poultry and meat processing plants. U.S.citizens and lawful permanent resident immigrants in a large number of occupations will now be threatened with displacement by guestworkers. The annual limit would be 500,000 H-2Cvisas.



Minimize government oversight

of employers’ claims of labor shortages, job terms and

working conditions. The Goodlatte bill would change from the H-2A program

’s

labor certification process to a labor attestation process, meaning employers simply promise tocomply with required job terms and other requirements, with limited government oversight.Goodlatte would also move the application process and enforcement of the worker protections from the Department of Labor to the Department of Agriculture, despite its lack of experience enforcing labor protections and despite the fact that all other guestworker programs are run by the DOL. None of these harmful changes would be ameliorated by any

new protections; in fact, the bill would remove workers’ access to justice.



Limit worker access to judicial relief and legal assistance.

In addition to reducinggovernment oversight, the bill would minimize workers

’ ability

to protect their few rights.The bill would bar federal legal aid programs from representing H-2C guestworkers. Beforefiling a lawsuit, workers (who find an attorney) would have to use and pay for mediationservices. Additionally, employers may require victimized workers to submit legal disputes tomandatory arbitration. Finally, workers would not be covered by the Migrant and SeasonalAgricultural Worker Protection Act.



Reduce

guestworkers’

minimum-work guarantee.

The H-2C program would replace theH-

2A program’s three

-fourths guarantee with a 50% guarantee. Employers would berequired to provide the H-2C workers with only half of the total hours of the contract periodthat they promised in the job offer, instead of the current 3/4. The ¾ guarantee is the principal protection against over-recruitment and provides some assurance that workers whocommit to the job will have the opportunity to earn close to the amount they were promised.



Eliminate the requirement that employers provide housing for guestworkers and U.S.workers who travel to the worksite

. Despite the severe shortage of sanitary, uncrowded,affordable housing for farmworkers, U.S. and foreign migrant workers would face thedifficult task of arranging for housing from their home bases. Some farmworkers wouldlikely end up homeless.



Eliminate travel-expense reimbursement to which workers are entitled.

H-2A programemployers must reimburse workers for their in-bound transportation costs after one-half of the season has elapsed and then pay for their travel home if they complete the season.Goodlatte eliminates this requirement

despite the workers’ low i

ncomes and the incentive itwould create for employers to over-recruit and drive down wages.